


Start Again

by LeafontheWinf2



Series: Time Traveler's Mate [14]
Category: Guardians of Childhood & Related Fandoms, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeafontheWinf2/pseuds/LeafontheWinf2
Summary: It’s been years since Jack died in the Library, and Aster’s finally figured out how to get him back.(Last part of the Time Traveler’s Mate, and the happy ending I promised years ago. It’ll make more sense with the rest of the series.)
Relationships: E. Aster Bunnymund/Jack Frost
Series: Time Traveler's Mate [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/322673
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	Start Again

**Author's Note:**

> It’s finally finished! I know it’s been 5 years, but I was finally in the mental space to sit and and finish this story.
> 
> It’s going to read differently because my writing style had changed drastically in the last several years, but I wanted to wrap this up and give it some closure. I hope you enjoy.

It’s surprisingly difficult to bring someone back to life, even when you are a spirit. It’s especially hard to bring someone back when they are a spirit who has had every part of them scrubbed from the universe. But difficult is not the same thing as impossible, and as long as Aster believed he could fix this, then eventually he would manage. 

That’s the best part of being the Guardian of Hope. Keeping your own hope alive until you succeed is easier when it’s your job. 

The first step had been making a new body. Aster had spent years trying to figure out how to make a body out of winter, only to realise that he couldn’t. His connection to spring was too strong. But there was someone who would help him bring Jack back, even if she didn’t like him personally. Seraphina had a personal investment in getting her son back and she would do anything to get her child back.

Once he’d explained the situation to her, Seraphina had spent months crafting Jack a new body out of winter. But while she was Mother Nature, she could only bring something back to life. The problem was that Jack didn’t need to be born. He’d already lived the life expected and written for him. No, Jack had to be reborn so he could begin a new life. That had been Aster’s new mission. 

It took months for Aster to find a spirit of rebirth who was willing to help him. Most of the spirits and gods Aster talked to didn’t seem interested at all in bringing one spirit back when they had other things to focus on. None of them, except Osiris. And even then it had taken Aster over a week to convince Osiris to help him. But he managed, and left the Egpytian pantheon with an ostrich feather that contained the breath of rebirth back to the World Tree where Jack’s body was waiting. 

Seraphina was the one to lay the feather on the still body, and both stood by and waited to see what would happen next. The feather sunk into the still body, dissolving through the veins and flesh to reanimate it and return life to what had once just been ice and snow. 

But a body is just a body. There needs to be something more in order for someone to become a person again. Even more needs to be done in order for someone to become who they once were before death. And that is why Aster had to return Jack back to the Warren where the toy rabbit was waiting for them. 

From there, Aster laid Jack on the Warren floor and rested the toy over his now beating heart. The rabbit, made out of wonder and joy and hope and love, sunk into Jack’s chest just like the ostrich feather had before. Everything that had made Jack who he had once been was returned back to him, from the joys to the sorrows, everything that makes a person a person. And that’s how you bring someone back to life.

Once, a story ended in shadows and tears in a library. But that’s the thing about stories. They can end, but a new story always begins again. And this story begins with Jack Frost waking up, whole and who he had once been, to see Aster by his side again right on time for once. Now, their story gets to start and it will have a happy ending.


End file.
